I Can't Wait
by faithfullyxo
Summary: Last summer, Lea and Cory acted on their budding feelings towards each other on a relaxing vacation. This summer, Cory reflects on their relationship and prepares to ask the most important question of his life... SEQUEL TO "SOMEWHERE ONLY WE KNOW'
1. Introduction

My name is Cory Monteith, and I'm a lucky guy.

I'm living a pretty good life right now. Still on a hit television show, even after graduating with the rest of the "seniors." Still in my band, Bonnie Dune, recording music and playing sold-out concerts in small venues. Still in a relationship with a living, breathing woman… Ms. Lea Michele. As an added bonus, I just became a first time homeowner… I hold the keys to a respectable condo in Vancouver, not all too far away from my mom's house. At 30 years old, for the first time in my life, I can say with the most certainty that this is the happiest that I've ever been and the best things have really ever gone for me.

Back in my real high school (which wasn't anything like WMHS, let's make that very clear)… well, at least my first year of it, whenever I managed to show up… if people would have said that I would have become something more than a gas station attendant or a busboy at a restaurant, I would have laughed whole-heartedly in your face. Growing up, to say that I was messed up is a complete understatement. The drug use, the drinking, all of the running away from home and not going back for days… I wasn't an ideal son, or really even a good citizen to the wonderful Vancouver. It really took this deep intervention to shake me to my core to clean me up. But anyway, I don't want to get too dark with you. That would just make us all sad.

I guess this lucky streak really started after that week in La Jolla last summer. This week with my great friends really just jump-started everything. Lea probably told the story a million times by now, on how we really got started. I like to blame the sleeping arrangements the most out of anything. I've always had a thing for Lea. How could you not, with her incredible personality and upbeat attitude about life? She was the firecracker under my ass that just lit me up. It's one thing when you work with someone and travel with them and everything like that, or even just hang out with them in events completely unrelated to work. But, when you're lying next to someone in a darkened room, and you're both in a completely vulnerable state before drifting off to sleep, you really form this cool bond with someone. You learn their little quirks… like, for example, Lea always falls asleep lying on her left side, but she'll always wake up on her stomach. Or, another example, when she's in that really deep sleep in the middle of the night, she lets out these tiny, petite snores that you can only really hear if you're right next to her. I'll never tell her she snores, though. She'd probably get really embarrassed and I wouldn't want her to be self-conscious when she sleeps. But those nights that we spent in bed together… those were the game changers. And now we've been together for just about a year.

After we got home from La Jolla last year, it took us two weeks to sort things through before we decided to move in together. We rented our own apartment. She couldn't live at my place because I had three roommates, and she didn't want me to move into her place because she said it would be too small for two people. We're happy in our place together. It isn't far from work, and it's out of the way enough that people really don't bother us now. But, shit, we were hawked for months after we came out as a legit couple. Paparazzi were everywhere, and every fan we met either loved and worshipped us together as Monchele, or they hated our guts. While the paparazzi thing was annoying, we really didn't get tired of all of the fan reactions. They just got crazier, and sometimes, creepier, so it kept things lively.

Let me be clear here, we are two regular people with real emotions, issues, and problems. Things between us haven't always been easy… for a month or two, we really went through this rough patch that made us question if we really had what it took to be together. It gets complicated when you live together. You can't just stand up, say goodbye, and walk out. You really have nowhere to go, especially without a suitcase of clothes or anything like that. Going through that time, though, really showed us that if we could work through that, we could really work through anything. That's another thing that I love about Lea. She doesn't quit. If she wants something, she'll fight for it. And trust me, she fought.

All in all, there really aren't too many things to look at in my life and go, "Wow, you have to deal with that? That really sucks." And honestly, a lot of credit really goes to Lea. People always say that when you know, you _know_. When everything clicks and falls into place, it just feels right. Whenever I'm around her, whether we're in our little apartment or at our special place on the beach that we try to visit once a month when things get too crazy, I feel like I'm completely at peace and at home. With all of this said, there's a question I need to ask her… really, one that I've been dying to ask her for a long time now. But why jump to that part when telling our story is just so much fun? There's a lot people don't know about her, or us for that matter, and I think it's time for people to know why I love that woman so much. Our journey doesn't start or end with these stories, but the stories only make the journey richer and fuller.

Hold on tight, people, here are the ten reasons why I love Lea Michele Sarfati, and the ten reasons why I want to marry Lea Michele Sarfati.


	2. Chapter 1

A/N: WELCOME TO 'I CAN'T WAIT'! I'm so glad to see so many familiar names from SOWK, and lots of new ones as well! I hope you're enjoying the concept of the story so far – it's incredibly exciting and refreshing to be writing this journey from Cory's point of view! If you don't already know, this story is based off of the song 'I Can't Wait' by Runner Runner and it is directly inspired through the lyrics, which are the themes for the chapters. The chapters will always follow a format: current thoughts and a flashback, sometimes with more current thoughts at the end.

**PLEASE NOTE: The e-mail notification that a new chapter has been posted might act funny – if you get an e-mail that a new chapter has been posted and the link doesn't work, come directly to the story via the website or my permalink. I apologize for that – the site was funny when I uploaded the Introduction, and I'm afraid everything else will be thrown off.**

I hope you all like the story and continue to read it, post comments and leave your thoughts and opinions – it really keeps me motivated and going! Love you all!

- Therese

**Chapter 1**

One thing you should know about Lea is that she's always late. Honestly, I'm not much better, but it's just easier to blame lateness on one person than on both. But when I'm late, I'm only by five or ten minutes. Lea will manage to be late by nearly an hour. I'm not quite sure how she always gets behind, but you always know she's off on her timing when she starts getting frantic and angry for no good reason. This outburst of random emotion turns into clumsiness. That would explain how we managed to break five iPhone screens on the tile floor in our bathroom in nearly a year. Pretty sure the guys at the Apple store have phones off to the side for her replacements. May I also add, this clumsiness and franticness is also the reason why I nearly almost drive _everywhere_.

Because she's always late, our timing is always thrown off and we always seem to get stuck in some kind of traffic or hold up. Even if we start to get ready two hours before we need to be somewhere, she'll still find a way to get caught up in a catastrophe to delay us almost worse than what it would be on a day that we get a late start. I really don't know how this even happens, but it does.

One of my favorite days of us being late and stuck in traffic going somewhere really isn't even all that special. But even these ordinary days seem to stand out in my head because of the way she leaves her mark on them.

Here's reason #1 why I want to marry Lea Michele Sarfati: _The way she curses when we're in traffic_.

"Mooooooove!" Lea yelled at the car in front of us, her New York and New Jersey accent strong and present in her voice. Yet again, we were stuck in ridiculous bumper-to-bumper traffic on the 405. We were both supposed to meet a call time of 7:00am at set, and of course, it was 7:40, and we weren't even off the entrance ramp to the highway.

I really couldn't do anything but groan as I began to flip through the radio stations, hoping to find something good to listen to. We'd be in this kind of traffic for at least a half hour. In the past, we'd call set and tell them that we'd be late and that we were terribly sorry for missing call time. But now, they've all just come to expect it from us. I always feel bad when we rush in and everyone else is ready to go. I wonder what they'd do if we were on time _just once_.

Lea took a sip of her coffee from her travel mug before letting a small moan escape her lips. "That Keurig makes a damn good cup of coffee."

"You mean your boyfriend makes a good cup of coffee?" I smiled at her. "Someone has to put the cup in the maker and your mug underneath the spout and press the button, you know."

She smirked at me before nodding her head. "Same thing, really."

"I'm sure it is," I replied before settling on a radio station. Couldn't go wrong with some old-school Pearl Jam on the classic rock station.

Lea leaned to her side, straining her neck to look around the line of cars in front of us to see what the hold up was. "Shit, man, this asshole in front of us has so much space in front of him."

"You're supposed to leave a car space, you know," I reminded her.

"Bullshit," she muttered before leaning over towards me quickly and extending her arm. With a strong push, she jammed her hand down hard on the horn. It blared, and not even only for a second or two, but for nearly ten. All during this time, I went into a shear panic, trying to pry her heavy-pressed hand off of the horn on my steering wheel.

"Are you crazy?" I squealed in a high-pitched manner, completely out of my normal voice range.

Lea started to laugh loudly, and after she felt like she clearly made her point, she removed her hand from the horn. Sure enough, the car in front of us started moving. Her laugh was infectious, and soon after my initial panic had subsided, I began to laugh with her.

"That's how you get shit done, baby," she smirked before taking another sip of her coffee. "Look at us moving now."

Honestly, we weren't going any faster than a whole 10 miles an hour, but compared to the standstill we were just in on the ramp, we might as well have been flying to work.

We spent the rest of the car ride in back and forth conversation about the scenes we'd be shooting that day, how sore we were from the dance rehearsals that were held yesterday, and what we wanted to have for dinner that night. It didn't take as long as we expected to get to work. Turns out, there was an accident that we were able to pass up pretty quickly. But at the end of the day, it wasn't so much about the rides to work, or the petty conversation, but her attitude in general. Maybe it's just the New York really coming out in her, but I just love that damn potty mouth. It makes her real, it shows her emotion, and as weird as it sounds, it makes her comfortable. I don't have to worry about being a guy around her. If I let the f-word slip, she doesn't even blink an eye. She sprinkles those in with her cereal in the morning.

We arrived at work, parked the car, and held a healthy jog all the way to our lot. I had to head over to the recording studio to work on a song that I'd be performing later, while Lea had to head straight for the makeup trailer to prepare for her first scene at Breadstix. Before we parted, we gave each other a small kiss and wished each other well.

"I love you," Lea called out to me as she marched up the steps to the makeup trailer.

"Love you too," I called back as I made my way across the parking lot to the studio. God, I wondered if she knew how much I really did.


	3. Chapter 2

**Chapter 2**

A funny thing about girls is their insane need to have a selection of beauty supplies to rival the likes of a drugstore. I'm not talking one or two tubes of that mascara stuff or a few shades of the eye powder, but I'm talking a rainbow of shades of whatever it is and whole fistfuls of brushes with brown-tipped hair. I can imagine it's worse for people in the business than regular girls, but seriously, you have one face. How many things can you really wear at once?

Okay, bad question… you could probably layer on a whole bunch of things.

I don't really understand why girls wear so much stuff on their face. I really like how women look when they look, I don't know, normal. And no, I'm not just referring to Lea. I'm referring to all women, like, even my mom. I've never really been the guy to be attracted to the most made-up and perfect girl in the room. I'd be afraid to touch her, honestly. If I'd touch her cheek or something (which I don't know why I'd go around touching random girls' cheeks, but go with it), I wouldn't want to get yelled at for smudging her bronzer.

One awesome perk of being Finn Hudson was dating Rachel Berry. Which meant that Finn Hudson got to kiss Rachel Berry… lots. Sometimes, I'd mess up on takes just to kiss her more. This was before we dated, obviously, and this was the only way to get to this level with her. I used to quietly thank the Lord above whenever there was a more intimate scene… or whenever there was a scene between the two of us, really. There was always this spark when I kissed her, like electricity through my veins. It was that little reminder that always said to me, "Oh, yeah, this is special, dude. Don't mess it up!"

Last summer, that first _real_ kiss that we shared sent surges of unbelievable excitement and voltage through my entire body. We were in that shower stall, covered in baby powder after a beautiful night with everyone at that beach, and even though I teased the kiss for a few moments before actually doing it, there was nothing that I wanted to do more in that moment. Share that single, innocent kiss with her in the perfection of the moment. Of course, it didn't really stay innocent or anything. We are two, young, red-blooded adults, you know. But no matter how many times we had kissed as Finn and Rachel, this was finally something to call our own. And the one thing that I remember so vividly? The flavor of her lips – grape.

The one thing that she wears every single day, without fail, is chapstick. That stuff, or the flavored lip glosses that end up making my lips sticky when she kisses me, and then she just ends up rubbing it off and puts the chapstick on. She's been wearing this chapstick stuff for as long as I've known her, and it's one thing that's always stayed constant. It keeps her lips crazy soft and it really keeps me on my toes, wondering "What flavor will she be wearing today?" Remember before, when I mentioned women's makeup collections and stuff like that? Lea has an entire drawer just for her chapsticks and lip-glosses. God bless that drawer.

_Here's reason #2 why I want to marry Lea Michele Sarfati: A million flavors of your chapstick _

I read my script and memorized each line perfectly. I practically knew my lines forwards and backwards, and everyone else's in between. We were all coming off of the high of being picked up for a full season after the pilot aired, and it was our first day back on the set to record the second episode.

The first scene of the day was the one that I had been anticipating the most. It was the auditorium scene between Finn and Rachel. I was so excited that I actually arrived for work super early. I sat in my trailer for a long time, just looking over my lines. Lea was a professional Broadway actress, and I was just some guy that had a few little parts in random television shows. I can't look bad in front of her; it's just not an option. What would she do if I needed more than a few takes to get my lines out right? What if she got so absorbed with the whole idea of this becoming a full show that she completely changed? Or worse, what if I was the super professional one and she was sucking it up around set? Oh God, I can't be good. I need to forget some of these lines.

I tossed the script to the side and I slumped down on the mini-couch in my trailer. It was just the right size for everyone else, but with my gigantic body, everything seemed like it was created for tiny people. I closed my eyes for a few moments, but soon after, heard a rap at my door.

"Come in," I called out, propping myself up on the couch.

The door swung open and Lea stepped right up into the trailer, her wavy brown hair bouncing on her shoulders. "What's going on?" she cheerfully greeted me. She was casually and comfortably dressed, in dark blue jeans and a black t-shirt that hugged her body perfectly.

"Not too much, just going over the lines," I noted, reaching for the script I had tossed aside just moments ago. "Think I'm finally ready for our scene."

"Oh yeah, we're going to kill it, are you kidding me?" she smiled at me with complete confidence as she leaned against the mini-table in my mini-kitchenette. "I just popped over because I wanted to make sure you were okay. I think we're supposed to be in the makeup trailer in ten minutes, and then on set in thirty."

"Sounds like a plan," I nervously smiled before standing up. I knew that this was my chance to get cute. Time to pull out the jokes. "So," I began to say as I walked over to her, "you ready to get all up on this?"

She laughed, covering her mouth with her tiny little hand. Score. "Yeah, you mean in front of a crew of twenty and four cameras?"

"The only way of doing this, clearly."

She laughed again. "Well, then I'm ready."

"Good," I smiled. My heart was beating so fast, I thought it was going to come right through my chest.

"I should get going. See you in a little bit," she called over her shoulder as she sauntered past me and towards the door.

"Yep, see you later," I finally replied as the trailer door slammed shut.

Holy shit, I was in for it.

Almost exactly a half hour later, Lea and I stood on the stage, surrounded by the crew and the cameras. My heart was racing and it felt like I had an entire butterfly enclosure in my stomach, like the ones you see at museums. I tapped my foot nervously on the floor as the lights and microphones were being adjusted and a woman worked on Lea's hair. I really had no idea what to do, or really, who to even speak to. We all still felt like the new kids in school without any clue of who to really talk to and stuff.

Lea looked absolutely incredible, and much different than she had looked in my trailer just a few minutes earlier. She now donned a micro-mini tan skirt and a maroon colored top. Her hair was straight and styled perfectly and her makeup was simple. Really, she looked every bit like a young high school girl, which made me feel creepy and amazing all at once.

As soon as we started rolling, Lea switched right into Rachel Berry-mode, as if a switch were flipped in her head. Her whole look in her eyes changed, and the way she spoke was much more precise. Accordingly, I assumed my Finn Hudson, the tall, lanky, and adorable high school jock.

She sat at the piano, pressing keys so I could practice hitting notes I didn't even know the name of.

"Try," she said with her first coy smile of the scene as she looked up at me.

My voice was strained, not used to all of the singing I've been doing lately. "Laa…" I bleated out, which wasn't exactly my best effort.

"Good!"

"That was good," I stated, knowing it was just a line and not the truth.

"One more up," Rachel suggested, hitting a higher note on the piano.

"Laa…" I sang, and that one honestly didn't sound half bad.

"That was really good."

"Is that okay?" I asked her, looking for a positive reaction from her.

Rachel took her fingers off the keys and looked up at me with her big brown eyes. "Yeah, it's like the holy grail for a bari-tenor, so it's a good note. So I'll, start at the bottom and I'll go up higher."

I rushed my line out, just as the directors told me I should before we started rolling. "Can we take a break? Singing kinda makes me hungry."

"Sure, well, lucky I prepared for that." She motioned with her hand over towards a picnic that was set up on a blanket with pillows and a picnic basket.

"Wow, I was wondering what that was all about," I exclaimed as I dug my hands into the pockets of my khakis, almost chuckling at the irony and ridiculousness of the idea.

"Wanna sit?" Rachel suggested to me."

"Yeah, yeah. Absolutely."

"I was wondering why you asked me to help you with your singing. You kicked butt at the assembly."

"Well, this is my only chance to be good like you."

Rachel's face turned a light shade of pink before her lips curled up into a shy smirk. "You think I'm good?"

"Well when I first joined, I thought you were kind of insane. You talk a lot more than you should, and to be honest with you, I looked under the bed, made sure you weren't hanging out under there." I thought the line was brilliant, and in accordance to what I had just told her, her expression turned from shy and happy to embarrassed.

"But then I heard you sing. I don't know how to say this, but you touched something in me, right here." I placed my left hand on the right side of my chest, convinced that my heart was somewhere under everything.

"Your heart is on the other side of your chest," Rachel smiled before taking my hand and placing it on the left side of my chest.

"Oh. It's beating really hard," I told her with a small chuckle. "You're cool, Rachel."

Rachel wasn't sure how to respond, so she avoided the idea of it. "Do you want a drink?" she asked me, motioning to her picnic basket.

"Yeah."

"Virgin cosmos," she noted as she poured cranberry juice into two small clear plastic cups.

"Cool. That stuff you said at the Celibacy Club, that was really cool." She handed a cup to me I held it before delivering my next line. "Thanks."

"Cheers."

"Cheers." I took a sip of the cranberry juice before admiring the cup. "The cups are like the airplane cups." I looked up at her, and with my next line, I knew things would be getting a little more physical. "Oh, you've got a little cosmo right here."

I reached towards her face. With my thumb, I brushed a little bit of imaginary liquid off the top of her lip. God, that was like touching a piece of velvet. I wondered if she noticed the way my facial expression changed when I touched her that very first time like that. I could tell hers had changed, but I honestly couldn't tell if Rachel Berry's expression had changed, or if it was Lea Michele's expression that had changed.

"You can kiss me if you want to," Rachel said to my face confidently, as if it were almost a nervous demand. Her eyes darted from my eyes to my lips, and back to my eyes.

Here it was. This was the moment. "I want to."

There, I said it. Now, came the interesting part. I leaned in close towards her, and she leaned right back on the pile of conveniently stacked pillows. Now, I had no other choice but to practically mount her. Oh God, I hope this works.

I slowly moved over her, and hovered above her body as I leaned in for the kiss. Our lips connected, and it was like fireworks exploded in my head and the parade started marching into town. And then I noticed it – she tasted exactly like a cherry. Her smooth, soft lips were cherry-flavored. Now, the unfortunate part of this scene had arrived. As quickly as we started to kiss, I pulled away from her lips and began making these weird faces and started convulsing to show that I was about to "arrive early." It was terribly awkward how I had to get up, pull and tug on my shirt, quickly sputter a line, and run off of the stage – but it was Finn Hudson.

"Did I do something wrong?" she asked anxiously, sitting upright with a worried and confused look on her beautiful face.

"No, no, ahh, I've just got to go. Just please don't tell anybody about this, okay?" I pleaded as I pulled on my shirt and shifted my weight back and forth between my legs. Quickly, I shuffled out of the shot and off of the stage.

They called cut on the scene, and I came back to the stage to laughter and Lea's giddy applause. I looked at her deeply, first into her big brown eyes, and then at her cherry-flavored lips. Our first kiss was something perfect, but there was no way to be sure of her feelings. I didn't ask her opinion of it or anything; that'd just be weird. But thankfully, we had to redo the scene five more times. I wasn't complaining an ounce. It meant kissing Lea five more times, but it also meant five more incredibly awkward exits.

After the sixth time, a wrap was called on our scene. The crew began to disperse quickly, all scattering to get to the next filming location, but Lea and I remained on the stage for a little while.

"You're not a bad kisser, Cory," she smirked as she pulled her brown hair up into a high ponytail.

"Well, you're not bad yourself," I smiled back as I dug my hands into the pockets of my khakis. I prayed that my face wasn't as red as a ripe tomato.

"I'm going to head back to the trailers to grab lunch. I'll see you around?" Lea asked before approaching me with open arms. She hugged me around my waist tightly.

"Yeah, I'll see you around," I replied.

Cherry kisses have always been my favorite, since that day. Lea doesn't know it, though. I'd be afraid that if I told her, she'd wear cherry all the time, and I like the variety. Also, I like the surprise of never knowing when I'll get the cherry kiss. Luckily, I don't have to wait for a scripted kiss anymore. I can just take a flavored kiss whenever I want.


	4. Story Update

Hi everyone! I know this story hasn't been updated in a VERY long time, and I'm very sorry about that! Real life got in the way… but good news! I'm writing the next chapter of the story right now, and it should be uploaded soon!

Thanks for sticking with it! xox

Therese


	5. Chapter 3

**Chapter 3**

Any guy you talk to would be the first to tell you how much of a bullshit holiday Valentine's Day is. Usually just biter single women boycott the holiday with a few bottles of wine among a group of fellow bitter single friends hate the holidays for what it represents: happy people in relationships. Guys hate it for completely different reasons. It's a Hallmark holiday created to sell cards, bouquets of flowers, and boxes of overpriced chocolates, and half of the flavors you ladies don't even like. Realistically, if you look at any box of Valentine's Day chocolates on February 15th, you'll see a handful of empty spaces in the plastic tray, some untouched pieces, and then a wide array of nibbled on pieces of chocolate that were quickly rejected because of the fillings.

Valentine's Day to women in relationships is basically catnip to kittens. It's crack.

Guys who are in said relationships are expected to pick out the perfect bouquet of roses from the florist, and they cost some serious money. And then, after we give you the roses, we are expected to take you out to a fancy, presumably expensive dinner. You can't make the reservations too close to the 14th, though, otherwise you run the risk of only getting a late-lunch reservation, or a spare table that opens up around 11 at night. After we shower you with red roses and dinner, we hand over the overpriced box of chocolate with those questionable flavor selections on the inside. We know you won't eat the almond clusters or the raspberry jelly-filled ones, but we pay for them anyways. At the end of the night, when everything is said and done, you know that we are looking for a little gratitude in the bedroom, your own special little way of saying 'thank you'… but after the second bottle of red wine at dinner, you're half asleep on the couch. It's then our choice to sleep on the couch next to you, still fully dressed, or quietly escort ourselves out. Any good guy will stay, though, and hopefully carry you to bed so you won't wake up with a stiff neck or sore back in the morning.

You know why we do all of this for you? Because we love you. And there's a chance of getting lucky on the 15th if we didn't get any on the 14th.

For as long as I've known Lea, she's been in relationships on Valentine's Day's. She hadn't made big deals about the holiday on set in front of us, or even when we all hung out afterwards, but any time I was in her trailer on and a few days after Valentine's Day, there were always red roses in glass vases scattered around her space. I could always tell that she was cool about the holiday, that she didn't expect any grand gestures.

This is our first Valentine's Day together as a couple. I keep feeling like I should do something big, something crazy romantic that she'd never expect, but I really come from humble dating beginnings. Dinners and movies. Mini-golf and milkshakes. Burgers and beers.

I know, though, whatever I come up with, Lea will make me feel like that day is the best of her life and that everything came out perfectly, even if it was pouring rain and we got closed out of our reservation at our favorite restaurant. Lea is really good at that – making me feel that whatever I do is perfect. It's just another thing that makes her perfect to me…. for me.

_Here's reason #3 why I want to marry Lea Michele Sarfati: The way that you keep my heart captive_

We sat quietly in front of the fireplace in the apartment we shared. We were near the flame, letting the heat from our gentle, wood-burning flame warm our bodies on the cool February night in California. Lea nestled close against my body, sitting in between my spread legs with her head on my chest. I was sure she was listening to the rhythm of my beating heart.

I let out a quiet sigh before taking a sip of red wine out of the glass I set next to me. We both drank slowly during our dinner comprised of only desserts – New York-style cheesecake from the supermarket, brownies that I actually cooked myself, chocolate chip cookies from Lea's favorite bakery, and mini-cupcakes that I swiped from the craft services table after filming today. We decided to curl up by the fire to relax after our dinner and finish off the bottle of wine.

I bought her the largest bouquet of red roses that I could find. And even after that, I went to a florist and had a second and third bouquet made. The roses were decoratively scattered around the apartment, with most of them being in the bedroom we shared. I smiled as Lea gushed over the flowers that could barely fit in her arms, and I could swear that she took the time to smell and admire each single rose, even though after a while, I'm sure they all looked and smelled the same.

"I don't want to go to work tomorrow," Lea muttered quietly as she readjusted her head on my chest. "I don't want to do anything that involves me leaving the apartment."

I smiled, kissing the top of her head. "Come on, you don't want to go to dance rehearsal at 8 in the morning and then film scenes all day?" I sarcastically asked.

She chuckled softly. "Tempting, but no."

"I have the day off tomorrow," I reminded her.

She only groaned in response.

We were quiet for another long while, watching the flickering of the embers and the dancing of flames from the fireplace. She stirred quietly after a few moments and looked up towards me. "I haven't given you your Valentine's present yet," she stated.

I smiled. "Would receiving my present have anything to do with the removal of clothing?"

She slapped me on the side of my arm, which actually really stung. "No!" she squealed before quickly getting to her feet. She padded away from me quickly, the sound of her bare feet hitting the hardwood floor making the sweetest little thump-thump-thump sound all the way into the bedroom.

I remained on the floor near the fire and I took another sip of my wine. I waited only a few seconds before I heard the footsteps come back my way. Lea had both of her hands behind her back, hiding my present from my eyes. She knelt down in front of me. "Guess what it is," she prodded.

"A hockey stick," I smirked.

She shook her head. "Guess again."

"Ah, maybe a new cactus for my trailer," I guessed.

"Nope."

"A pair of sunglasses."

"Nuh-uh."

"Lingerie?"

"Keep dreaming," she smirked as she bit her bottom lip.

I let out a heavy sigh before getting to my knees. I leaned towards her and reached out, trying to grab for whatever she was holding behind her back.

"Hey! No cheating!" she squealed as she twisted her body away from my arms.

"I'm terrible at guessing games," I stated as I took another swipe at what was behind her back.

"No!" she laughed as she twisted away again. "Stop it!"

I lunged towards her and wrapped my arms around her waist, trying to grab at the present behind her back. She laughed heartily into my ear as she tried to wiggle out of my arms, but she was unsuccessful.

I finally was able to get a hand on my present. I took it out of her hands and looked at it.

"A box of chocolate?" I asked her, looking up at her.

She smiled as she sat back on her heels. "Not just any box of chocolate. Open it up."

Slowly, I removed the ribbons and wrapper to open the box. My eyes widened as I finally saw what was on the inside. "Is this what I think it is?" I asked.

She nodded with a bright smile on her face.

Inside the box neatly lined up and displayed, were pieces of chocolate-covered bacon. "This is insane!" I nearly yelled, picking up a long piece of bacon under layers of creamy, solid milk chocolate.

"Do you like it?" Lea smiled. "I don't agree with what's under the chocolate by any means, but I figured I can't expect you to give up meat completely whenever I'm around. This way, I don't even have to see you eating the meat. Just looks like one long chocolate bar," she rationalized as I took a bite.

"I love you," I told her with a mouth full of bacon and chocolate. "You're the best."

"Love you too," she replied, leaning forward to kiss me on the cheek. "But, are you ready for the second part?" she asked, with a small twinkle in her eye that only meant one thing.

I dropped the bacon almost immediately and nodded my head like a bobblehead. The two of us sprang to our feet and danced into the bedroom, closing the door behind us.

Happy Valentine's Day.


End file.
